Couple Mosin Nagant Questions

This is a discussion on Couple Mosin Nagant Questions within the Defensive Rifles & Shotgun Discussion forums, part of the Related Topics category; Hello everyone.
I've been getting to learn a lot about my Mosin Nagant lately. It's such a simple piece of machinery, yet it's so brilliant. ...

Couple Mosin Nagant Questions

Hello everyone.

I've been getting to learn a lot about my Mosin Nagant lately. It's such a simple piece of machinery, yet it's so brilliant. Anyway, I just had a few questions that I couldn't find the answers to anywhere so I was hoping you guys could help me.

How did the Red Army clean their Mosins in the thick of WWII? It seems like you would have to clean this thing everyday you fired it because of the corrosive ammo, especially in settings like Stalingrad during the middle of winter. Seems like all that moister in the snow would cause insta rust. Also, what did they use to clean them to get the corrosive compounds off? Was it just water or some really good solvent?

Second, how can you tell your rifle actually saw combat? Mine was stamped in 1942, so I'm assuming it saw some combat since it was made before the end of the war, yet it looks to be in pretty good shape.

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. --- Will Rogers --- Chief Justice John Roberts : "I don't see how you can read Heller and not take away from it the notion that the Second Amendment...was extremely important to the framers in their view of what liberty meant."

No way to definitively know if your Mosin Nagant actually saw action in WW2. Almost all of these rifles now imported are arsenal refurbish and most likely turned in at the end of the war or were battlefield pickups. Many of the war refurbs were counterbored. Cleaning during combat could be difficult if not impossible at times and the barrel/bores would be damaged by corrosive salts/moisture. Basically they just did the best they could under very difficult conditions. I imagine with the horrendous casualties the Soviets suffered in the war if your rifle was damaged another rifle was only a another dead Ivan (or Nazi) away. The late war rifles that were not issued and just stored of course have near perfect bores and many of these are now imported.

A counterbored barrel is when the rifling and part of the inner diameter of the bore is drilled out from the muzzle back, far enough to get rid of any damaged or shot out rifling. The Russian's did a good job generally and counter bored rifles usually shoot generally as accurately as a non-counter bored rifle. If you look down the muzzle end of the barrel and see that some of the rifling is missing (drilled out) from the end of the barrel usually 1/2-1" back its counter bored.